【Original】A World Behind Fences

---Chapter 6

A Few Months Later....

Sitting on the bench, shivering from the winter air, I began to daydream again. It seemed to happen a lot, and often separated me from reality. I could feel small flakes of snow landing onto my nose. Unfortunately, I had to only wear a singlet and shorts in this weather. It was useful for the work I did, but outside it made it like hell. A small cold breeze brushed past my face, and I sneezed. My stomach began to rumble a little. It was 6 more hours before we could eat. The past couple of days we didn't sleep, just working. We didn't eat in the cafeteria with the other boys either, whenever they sent us in there to eat we would fight with Changwoo and his brothers. It was a hopeless situation so the others and I just ate inside our dorm. As I was in deep thought, the entire universe seemed to slow down as I gazed across the yard, with tired drooping eyelids. We worked hard, all day it seemed. The men who held us behind these barbed fences wouldn't tell us why we worked so hard, just that we did it with no complaining. Maybe we'll be here till we die of old age, or get beaten to death? I began to cry a little just of the thought.

"Siha?" A familiar voice spoke. I quickly looked up, and rubbed away my tears.

"Rex-hyung... hey, are you okay?" I questioned. He looked at me with a questionable gaze.

"What do you mean am I okay?? Look at you Siha!! I should be asking if you're okay, because I'm fine." He bleated. I smiled slightly.

"I... I was thinking about how long we might be here for." I stuttered.

"And?" He questioned.

"What if we're here till we die? Are we ever going to get out of here, hyung?" I replied. He knelt down and put his hand on my shoulder. He slightly hesitated before saying anything.

"We'll be okay, Siha. I know that someday we'll get out, just you see. They can't just keep us here forever, can they? We'll only get older, and someone will rebel eventually, then we can leave." He said. I hoped that he was right, because I didn't want to die here. I want to grow up. I can't stay here for the rest of my life. I don't want to die in a war.

"I hope you're right." I decided to say, smiling slightly. He patted my shoulder slightly.

"That's the spirit, Siha. Be more optimistic." Eun cheered, smiling before heading off to do some more work. He walked across the court to another hallway on the other side, and disappeared. With a slight pang in my chest, and a hope to not die in this horrible place- I stood and headed back to work. Walking across the large court, I reached for a large grey double door that was alone at the end of a small hallway. Opening it, I stepped inside to a blast of extreme heat. The room was huge, and there was massive piles of coal everywhere. A shovel was leaned against the wall closest to the door and five large cylinders in the middle of the room sprouted all the heat that made the room feel like a desert. The big metal cylinders had fires raging at the bottom, and were all attached to many small pipes that went around the ceiling and out of the room. I was in charge of keeping those bastard men happy and warm during this cold winter. It was horrible, I would always sweat and sometimes got burnt if sparks flew from the non covered fires. Even though it was freezing outside, I still hated the heat inside this room. I wished I was sitting beside a fire drinking hot chocolate, like those men that hold us hostage here do. I sighed before grabbing the shovel and looking around wondering which pile of coal to start at first. Heading over to the largest pile of coal that sat by the left wall, I scooped some up and threw it into the fire. The flames roared and became bigger, a few sparks flicking out of the cylinder hitting my arm. Walking along, I scooped up another shovel load of coal and threw it into another. With a deep sigh, and wiping the now dripping sweat off my face, I continued my work. I would just have to do it, otherwise I'd be either beaten or killed. Never did I want either, because if I was beaten I'd still have to work, with those horrible cuts and bruises they manage to put on us. If I died, I would be leaving Rex behind alone in the world. He had the other guys that were in our dorm, but if he felt the same as me, I love Rex more than them. And it isn't rude, especially when you think about it. I have known Rex for years, versus the 4 months I've known the other boys.
Quickly moving along, I shoveled some more coal into the first cylinder I did. Another sigh, the realization hit me that I'd have to do this for another 6 hours.

Walking to the dorm for lunch I could feel the hard labour I was doing. My arms felt like they were going to drop off, and my back was aching. Turning slightly, I noticed Kris heading back as well. He looked just as tired as me. Rubbing his head, it seems he had a few scratches on his wrists. I didn't really know what the others did, but it seemed just as hard as mine. They always came back tired like me. The work we had to do was insane. He glanced over and smiled. "Hey, Siha." He greeted, quickly heading over to walk beside me. I waved slightly. It was nice to finally have more than one friend in my life. "Have fun at work?" He sarcastically asked. I snickered. "Fun?? It's anything but fun!! What sort of stuff did they give you??" I joked with a laugh. Shoveling coal for 16 hours isn't fun. Even though I had 5 minutes break, it was still horrible. Although, the 5 minutes I had as a break was heaven. I normally didn't get any breaks at all. He smiled as we kept walking toward the dorm. It had been such a long week, and we were getting so tired. It was nice to smile, it felt good. I'm sure Kris felt the same. He looked at me. "Hey look, it's that blockhead that gives us a hard time." He scowled. I looked over to see Changwoo. He had gotten bigger since we last saw him. Not just in height, but in body mass. Like his muscles have gotten huge, and now he looks like 15x bigger than me. I swear either he got massive or I shrunk. Hopefully not the latter. Which was weird to say the least. Then again, I got a bit more muscles than before. Even though I was still skinny. If I were back in Seoul, I might get compliments from my appearance. Immediately shaking that thought from my mind, I could feel myself cringe. No way would anyone compliment my appearance. Glancing up at Changwoo I noticed he was carrying a wooden box. My curious side of me wondered what was in it. I couldn't believe that he was even still here considering the stuff he did. "Yeah, why does he even do the stuff he does? Like, man- way to be an ass." I said, chuckling. Kris began to laugh a little. "I agree." Kris sneered. We began to walk past him in the hallway, trying not to make eye contact. As Changwoo walked past us, he shoved Kris a little. As both of us were tired, Kris moved a lot more than he should have. It annoyed me that Changwoo thought he could just shove Kris like that.

"What the hell is your problem, jerk?" I snapped at him, not even realising that I said anything.

"Nothing. Just want some play time before I go eat some diseased looking food." Changwoo retorted, walking away quickly. Kris looked at me with shock.

"Siha, are you out of your mind trying to stoop to his level? He's a waste of our time. Come on, let's get to our dorm so we can eat. You need it." Kris bleated, grabbing my arm and dragging me to the dorm.

Opening the creaking door, we walked into the still smelly room. Even though I've lived in this dump for 4 months now, the dorm still stinks as bad as it did the first time I smelt it. It never gets better, and I don't think I'll ever get used to it. Ryeowook, Youngjae and Rex were sitting on their beds patiently waiting for our lunch. "Hey guys, Siha almost picked a fight with Changwoo... again." Kris said, sitting on his bed. Damn it, Kris. I was hoping he wouldn't tell anyone. Can't keep secrets with this guy. But then... I didn't tell him to keep it a secret or to keep his mouth shut... No I'm still mad. I didn't want Rex to get upset with my actions again.

"Really? What did he say?" Youngjae questioned, intrigued.

"I asked him what his problem was, after he shoved Kris when we were walking back to the dorm. I don't know why it is such a big deal." I replied.

"And you called him a jerk." Kris added. Youngjae laughed loudly.

"Wow! Now that is funny. Wish I had have been there." He snorted.

Rex sat up and looked at me with a pained, hurt expression.

"What? Why would you do that, Siha?? We don't need any stuff like that happening!!! We have enough trouble with Changwoo as it is." He sighed. Here we go again.

Ryeo sat near the edge of his bed, dangling his legs off it. "I agree with Rex, as funny as it was- we can't afford to have this sort of stuff happening. We aren't in High School..." Ryeo said to us, adding on to what Rex had said. "Now promise you won't cause anymore trouble with Changwoo, please Siha." The conversation seemed very one sided, and I felt as if I had let everyone down. I was just doing what I usually did, I stuck up for my friend against a bully. With a sigh, I let out a small "Sure". Rex was still looking up at me.

"Are you alright, hyung?" I asked him. He suddenly began to cry.

"Hyung? Are you alright?" I repeated. The others looked at him. Ryeowook had got out of his bed, and sat next to Rex to comfort him.